Putin’s carrot to Trump

President Donald Trump has befuddled the world since coming to power
but the last few weeks have been ghastly.

Insults have rained down on friends -- Canada, Germany, Great Britain
--
agreements like NAFTA upturned and NATO’s membership threatened.
Meanwhile, autocrats -- especially Russia’s President Vladimir Putin --
got away with murder; some 11,000 have been killed in his war in
Ukraine; a half-million in Syria.

It gets worse. Trump’s one-on-one with Russia’s president may have
ominous results. Hailed as “super” by Russia, it implied, among others,
that the leaders agreed on sanctions -- to bypass them? -- abandoned
Syria’s freedom fighters, and struck an “interesting” deal in Ukraine.
Uncharacteristically, America’s leader has said nothing.

If this is so, it’s a devilish agenda. Totally devoid of moral and
political standards it demands an answer to why the leader of the free
world is caving to the will of an international criminal?

In a far-reaching Globe and Mail piece, Canada’s Mark MacKinnon writes
that “many believe Mr. Putin would like to see the planet divided once
more into Western, Russian and perhaps Chinese, zones of control.
”Ukraine", which MacKinnon considers indispensable to Russia’s
greatness
“would fall on (Russia’s) side of any new Iron Curtain.”

This is happening already.

Unpunished for brazenly annexing Ukraine’s Crimea -- not on the
sanction list and Russia is still in SWIFT -- Mr. Putin’s aspirations
expand beyond Ukraine; even beyond the former U.S.S.R. He’s aiming, it
seems, to usurp all of Europe.

Great Britain is exiting the European Union, NATO is threatened, newly
announced tariffs are causing chaos. Germany is aiding and abetting
with Nord Stream 2; a godsend for Russia. It delivers much-needed
revenues, punishes Ukraine and blocks Europe’s energy independence.
Meanwhile, Steve Bannon -- Trump’s ideologue is using his alt-right
movement to align Europeans further with Moscow which, masquerading as
the standard bearer for national purity, family and Christian values,
aims to seduce Europe to its will.

So, Putin gets Europe. What does Trump get?

Because he wants to be a one-man show with absolute power -- like a
dictator without checks and balances -- America’s president gets a
willing mentor to help him make America like Russia.

In this America, as in Russia, the leader’s lies are truths. The free
press is the enemy of the people to be besmirched and, if need be,
eliminated. Checks and balances are neutralized through patronage,
nepotism or pay-offs. In due course, opponents are arrested in the name
of national security or other trumped-up but noble-sounding reasons.
Mock trials follow to cover-up the real criminal, the dictator.
Subservience is ensured by creating fear; loss of job, influence,
status and, just as in Russia, even life.

The military and law-enforcement entities -- now the leader’s personal
security apparatus rather than the defendants of the state, make sure
the leader is “safe” from his people. The president’s office is used to
enrich the incumbent, his family and entourage. It is not lost on
President Trump that his Russian counterpart may be the richest man in
the world.

This is Putin’s carrot to Trump. It’s the knowledge and experience of
how to obtain and hold such absolute power. For this to happen out of
the public eye, secret meetings are needed to ensure that no one is
certain of too much.

But there may be even more to Mr. Putin’s carrot. Beyond absolute
control of America, President Trump gets all of North America.

Such an arrangement would explain why Trump is so cock-sure that Mexico
“will pay for the wall” and his incomprehensible rudeness to Canada’s
prime minister. Incomprehensible, until one realizes that without U.S.
defense, Canada is vulnerable to Russia or, equally frightening, to a
now belligerent neighbor to the south.

This is important: if Putin can attack Ukraine because he wants its
territory and human and natural resources and get away with it, why
can’t Trump?

But what about the Middle East and China?

Russia’s sources stated that these were addressed at the secret
Helsinki meeting. Also, that Israel is to be strengthened, a nod to
intense pressure from its Russia and U.S. diaspora, but Syria’s freedom
fighters are to be thrown to the wolves. China is to become a common
enemy.

But first things first. Europe is to be Putin’s; North America Trump’s
unless the Mueller investigation or robust public opinion stops this
insanity. The overwhelming condemnation of the secret Helsinki meeting
gives some hope.

Oksana Bashuk Hepburn,
formerly president of a consulting company brokering interests between
Canada and Ukraine, and policy adviser to the government on Canada,
writes on international issues.